1549
The King who condemned him to the den of lions felt far worse about it than Daniel did.
Nebuchadnezzar II was King of Babylon (near to modern Baghdad) in the 6th century BC. Many Jews lived there, after Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians 587 BC.
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1550
The ten-year-old got away from a royal castle disguised as a bundle of hay.
William Longsword was the son of Rollo, a Viking who had made his home in northern France, much to the disgust of the French kings. William was murdered on December 17, 942, leaving a son named Richard.
Posted March 13 2015
1551
An over-excited jackdaw goes out of his league, and pays the price.
A jackdaw is a member of the crow family, with a little silver sheen to the back of its head. It is not one of the larger crows, but in this story, a jackdaw’s envy leads him to forget that.
Picture: © Mike Pennington, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1552
Edmond Halley will forever be associated with the comet named after him, but his greatest achievement was getting Sir Isaac Newton to publish ‘Principia Mathematica’.
Halley’s comet is named after Edmond Halley (1656-1742), Britain’s second Astronomer Royal and a friend and colleague of Sir Isaac Newton.
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1553
Picture: © Klearchos Kapoutsis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1554
Josiah Wedgwood’s promotional gift made Abolitionism fashionable.
The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded in 1787 by Thomas Clarkson, distributed a tasteful cameo of its emblem done in jasperware by Josiah Wedgwood. Clarkson (who sent some to Benjamin Franklin, President of Pennsylvania) later expressed his warm appreciation.
Picture: By Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), via Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015